Page 8 of Lure

I made a face. “Would you mind looking at my back for me? I really don’t want anyone’s blood on me.” Not even my own.

“I don’t mind at all.” A simple, straightforward answer. I screwed the cap back on the empty bottle. “Light coming on.” Instead of the overhead which I expected, he had a flashlight in his hand pointed at his boots.

It was much brighter than I expected, but also whiter than the muddy light from the overhead. Weird, the things you noticed. I pushed up from where I sat on the lip of the back and turned away.

The light threw my shadow against the door and past it. Goblin was right there, panting. It wasn’t that warm out here but maybe he was tired. “Should we give him water?”

“Yep,” Alphabet answered. “We will. Going to touch your back, okay?”

“Okay.”

Instead of touching me directly though, he pulled the sticky shirt away from my back and my stomach rolled. A shudder rippled through me and then there was a hand on my shoulder.

“Breathe,” he ordered. This time it was not a request. “It’s mostly sweat, I would imagine. But there is some blood. So, your bag is right there… let’s get you out something clean and…”

The light swept lower, over my leggings.

“Your butt looks fine, and your legs. So I don’t think you got any there. Shoes are good.” He swept the light upwards again. “Touching your head, okay?”

Despite the no-nonsense tone, he waited for my response.

“Yes, I found a lump. But I don’t think it was bleeding.”

“Well, that’s something.” He moved a little closer, then his hand was in my hair, gentle as a butterfly’s wings while his fingertips traced over my scalp. “Definitely a lump. I’m pretty sure you have a concussion.”

“I kind of guessed.”

“You’re going to be fine,” he continued as though there were zero other options.

“Or what?” The tease fell out of me. “Going to sing me the ABCs?”

His snort pulled a real, if reluctant smile to my lips. “I might save that for when you do something really bad.” As fast as the humor appeared, it vanished. “We’ll save that for later though. Right now, let’s get you cleaned up and get Goblin some water and we’ll get back on the road.”

“Can’t wait.” If he could fake enthusiasm. So could I.

Changing meant taking the shirt off in front of him. Not that I cared.

“I can turn around if you want.” It was a nice offer.

“It’s just a body, AB,” I told him. “And if you don’t mind doing me one more favor, I’d like it if you could make sure to wipe any of the blood off me.”

“AB?” He repeated the letters in order. “Giving me another nickname, Gracie?”

“If you hate it…”

“I don’t,” he said quickly. “It’s kind of nice. Okay, let’s get you cleaned up. Once we’ve got signal again, I’ll tag Voodoo about the pain relievers you can have for that headache.”

Changing me took almost no time at all. I did my best to not think about any dampness I touched as I stripped the shirt off. He used the light and a wipe to clean up my back then he sighed.

“Gracie…”

“It’s on the bra too, isn’t it?”

“Sorry.” The funny thing was, he sounded absolutely sincere.

“I’ll live.” I reached behind me and undid the snaps then shrugged it off. It fell on the ground and I left it there. He finished wiping down my back. The wipe itself was cool and it left goosebumps in its wake as the breeze hit. He cleaned away all the traces of the earlier attack.

If only everything could be washed away as easily.

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